Saturday, November 06, 2010

I bought a couple of trouser patterns from the Marfy 2008 catalogue. I was looking for a pattern to make summer weight casual trousers. The pantaloons (from the 2010 catalogue) were a wild experiment along the same theme, but 0680 looked much more likely to be useful. While trouser patterns are perhaps the most difficult to fit, but Marfy skirt patterns do tend to fit me quite well, so I was hopeful. Neve

rtheless, first I made a mockup version, cutting up a pair of cotton baggies and turning them into shorts. Since they were just for practice I didn't bother putting pockets in these, apart from using the one already present on the back of the baggies. I'm sure the experts of trews fitting would spot issues, but just like the Marfy skirts, these fit me really well. So I went ahead and cut into the hydra

ngea print cotton from a local shoppe. I made these straight leg - I'm really not tall enough to carry off seriously flared trousers. This time I included the patch pockets on the front. In fitting I very slightly widened the hips in the pocket area - by less than 0.5cm. These were stitched in August, and were taken to the UK and worn there for a few weeks, until the weather became too cold.

On return to Japan in October, I made the third pair, in an abstract pattern polyester, from the posher of the two fabric shops in Kamakura. This time I made internal pockets and discovered that I had to widen the outside seam by a further cm or so. I think this is not just from having got very fat while in the UK, but also required in order to enable usage of the internal pockets. It is now too cold here to wear these so I hope I still like them come next spring!

At last I've found an interfacing for waistbands that actually seems to work. I find proper waistband interfacing too stiff to be comfortable, and most other interfacing too insubstantial, such that the waistband does not really do its job and tends to wrinkle. .. So a bit of advertising for the new favourite, bought online from the US - Pro-Weft Fusible.